This dataset contains experimental and survey biogeochemical and microbial data from samples collected at the Moorea Coral Reef LTER site (French Polynesia). Goals of the study were to investigate how benthic primary producers directly affect seawater chemistry (DO and DOC) and to examine impacts of released DOC on reef bacterioplankton growth and respiration. Rates of photosynthesis, respiration, and DOC relsease were assessed for several benthic reef organisms (Haas et al. 2011).

Acquisition Description

Dataset acquisition description

2010 and 2011 Data Acquisition:
Sampling from small boats occurred along transects at the Moorea Coral Reef LTER sites during September 2010 and September 2011. Benthic producers were collected from water depths of 1.0 to 1.5 meters at back and fringe reef locations. Bacterioplankton abundance was determined using flow cytometry (Nelson et al. 2011). DOC was measured by a high-temperature TOC analyzer according to methods of Carlson et al. (2010). To assess DOC release by primary producers, each benthic species was incubated using the method of Herndl and Velimirov (Haas et al. 2011). To determine if DOC released by primary producers affects mirobial populations, ~48 hour dark dilution culture incubations were performed to measure changes in concentration of DO, DOC, and bacterioplankton over time (Haas et el. 2011).

For more details on methodology, quality assurance and control procedures, and precision and accuracy of methods used, see the following references:
Bacterioplankton flow cytometry methods:
Nelson, C.E., A.L. Alldredge, E.A. McCliment, L.A. Amaral-Zettler, and C.A. Carlson. 2011. Depleted dissolved organic carbon and distinct Bacterial communities in the water column of a rapid-flushing coral reef ecosystem. The ISME Journal 5: 1374-1387. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2011.12

Flow cytometers (FC or FCM) are automated instruments that quantitate properties of single cells, one cell at a time. They can measure cell size, cell granularity, the amounts of cell components such as total DNA, newly synthesized DNA, gene expression as the amount messenger RNA for a particular gene, amounts of specific surface receptors, amounts of intracellular proteins, or transient signalling events in living cells.
(from: http://www.bio.umass.edu/micro/immunology/facs542/facswhat.htm)

A Niskin bottle (a next generation water sampler based on the Nansen bottle) is a cylindrical, non-metallic water collection device with stoppers at both ends. The bottles can be attached individually on a hydrowire or deployed in 12, 24 or 36 bottle Rosette systems mounted on a frame and combined with a CTD. Niskin bottles are used to collect discrete water samples for a range of measurements including pigments, nutrients, plankton, etc.